Thousands of miles west of Sylvain, on the left bank of the Tigris, the scorching sun scorched the ancient Ctesiphon, and the merchants walked through the bustling streets, their faces covered with exhaustion and excitement, and the occasional court officials walked by with a listless look, hurrying away after a typical inspection.

The defeat of the Mahdi did not affect the ancient city, and Ctesiphon is as bustling today as it was hundreds of years ago.

It's just that, unlike the lively streets and squares, the gates of the palace are locked during the day, and the soldiers inside and outside the doors have new faces.

The nobles and officials who entered and exited the court all complained in a low voice, not knowing what kind of wind the caliph would smoke these days.

Mansour has rarely shown his face since he refuted the rumors, and the ministers have not seen their caliph for many days.

For a time, rumors inside and outside the court spread like a plague, some said that the caliph was seriously ill, and others said that the caliph quietly left Ctesiphon and rushed to the enemy to command the battle.

Exaggerated rumours were rife, but al-Mansur had largely disappeared since he severely punished those who spread rumors of Mahdi's defeat, and anyone who asked for an audience with the caliph for whatever reason was kept out without giving a specific reason.

That's not normal.

Mansur was a man of great control, and in the past, he had to intervene in matters inside and outside the court as long as he remembered them, and anyone who was slow to report on official affairs was usually severely punished.

Now that everything was going in a very different direction than before, the ministers had no clue, and the tribal leaders who had come to see them were even more dissatisfied, believing that they had been treated with contempt and neglect.

A corner of the palace door slowly opened, and a group of more than a dozen people quietly came out, and left silently, and after entering the street, they merged into the ranks of soldiers in charge of patrolling, and soon disappeared into the bustling street.

Mansour was hidden in the team, and just now, he received another message from Fazle, but this time it was the opposite of the previous one, and the bad news was like a bolt from the blue for him.

Because his most important son, and after making a serious mistake, he still chose to forgive the son became a prisoner of the Tang people.

This was a great disgrace for the Empire and for him.

What's even more nerve-wracking than the shame is that once this news is revealed, how will the opponents who are in the open or hidden in the shadows make a fuss?

After thinking about it, Mansour felt that being in Ctesiphon was like sitting in a fire, and every place was safe.

Until now, only the Praetorian Guard barracks stationed outside the city were the safest, so he chose to leave quietly and enter the Praetorian Guard.

The Praetorian Guard is all Mansour's hardcore descendants, and the probability of betraying him is relatively low.

After confirming that he was safe, Mansur racked his brains as to how to make this humiliating and shocking news public.

After all, paper can't hold the fire, Mahdi has not come back for a long time, the defeated people and horses don't know where they have fallen, and all kinds of doubts will surface over time, lies can't hide the facts, so long can only face it head-on.

First of all, Mansur thought of choosing another heir among his sons, but he counted on his fingers for a while, and could not help but be a little discouraged.

His sons are either minors who cannot be entrusted with heavy responsibilities, or they only know how to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, and in the end there is not a single one who can really assist them.

Mahdi, Ahmadi, Mansur doesn't know whether he loves or hates this son, and until now, there is no point in saying anything.

While he was struggling, the retinue came to his side to report it, and the messenger from Sylvan said again.

Although al-Mansur secretly left the court in some embarrassment, he was able to explain important matters to the court, including how to deal with the emissaries from Fazl.

When the envoy arrived at the court, he was immediately secretly sent to the Praetorian Guard camp by Mansur.

"What, move the capital?"

An incredible expression appeared on Mansour's face, and Fazler, thousands of miles away, knew what he was thinking.

Just now, he did think of moving the capital, leaving all those nasty tribal nobles in Ctesiphon, leaving them to fend for themselves, and only taking the elite bureaucrats of the empire to the new capital district, to Baghdad!

That's right, he has already thought of the name of the new capital, it will be called Baghdad.

Baghdad was built on the left bank of the Tigris River, just across the river from Ctesiphon.

The relocation of the capital should have been planned in advance, and then slowly implemented, but time waits for no one, so let's start the relocation of the capital that should have started a year later.

Mansour's first thought was the mosque, and the mosque in Ctesifenge was the first to be moved, and all the clergy, not a single one, were moved.

Then there was the Praetorian Guard, including their families and families, who were also to move there.

The migration of these two groups was actually planned half a year ago, and the huge systematic work, including the statistics of population and property, has not yet been completed.

Some people also use this as an excuse to obstruct the relocation of the capital, believing that the relocation of the capital will cost human and financial resources, and they cannot even see what the return will be.

However, under Mansour's iron-fisted suppression, all discordant voices disappeared, and only one voice was allowed to remain in the court, and that was to move the capital!

Al-Mansur no longer trusted his ministers, and the most direct use in this case were the eunuchs around him, who had no families, no wives and children, and were castrated from a very young age as a symbol of men, and were thrown into the court as slaves of the caliph.

The only thing they could do was to be loyal to the caliphate.

Therefore, in the past year, many eunuchs began to frequent the court, communicating the will of the caliphate to the ministers and generals, and at the same time gaining the right to supervise financial expenditures.

For example, the supervisor of the construction of the new capital is a eunuch, and the rest of the ministers have to obey the command, and then lose the opportunity to get involved in the new capital.

Before sunset that day, the mosque and the Praetorian Guard families in the city of Ctesephomus received a decree from the caliph and immediately left for the new capital within seven days.

Later, the ministers were also notified that they would go to the new capital within a month, and if anyone did not arrive, they would be severely punished according to the laws of the Empire.

In just one night, the word "move the capital" made the ancient Ctesiphon churn like boiling water in an iron pot.